Vidéotron Completes $920M Refinancing

On October 8, 2003, Quebec-based Vidéotron Ltée, a wholly owned subsidiary of Quebecor Media Inc., completed a $920 million refinancing consisting of a Rule 144A and Regulation S private placement of US$335 million 6 7/8 per cent senior notes due on January 15, 2014 and new secured credit facilities consisting of a revolving facility of $100 million and a five-year term loan of $368 million. Vidéotron has filed a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission pursuant to which the privately placed senior notes will be exchanged for substantially identical new notes that will be qualified and effective as of the filing of such registration statement. The high yield offering was led by Banc of America Securities LLC and Citigroup Global Markets Inc., as joint book-running managers. The bank financing was led and arranged by RBC Dominion Securities Inc. and co-arranged by Bank of America, N.A., Canada Branch, BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc. and TD Bank.

Vidéotron’s legal team was led in-house by Frédéric Despars, director, legal, Quebecor Media; assisted in Canada by Ogilvy Renault, with a team that included Marc Lacourcière, Solomon Sananes and Jules Charette (tax) and Elliot Shapiro and Serge Levy for the offering, and Christian Sioufi and Kathy Shakibnia for the bank financing; and in the U.S. by Arnold & Porter in New York, with a team for both the offering and the financing that included John Willett, Christine Rogers, Richard Andersen, Lily Lu and Mayrav Teller (tax) and Shannon Hassan and Karuna Jain.

The joint book-running managers for the offering were represented in Canada by Stikeman Elliott LLP, with a team that included Jean Marc Huot, J. Anthony Penhale and Luc Bernier (tax) and Jason Streicher; and in the U.S. by Shearman & Sterling LLP, with a team that included Andrew Schleider, Christopher Cummings, Pao-Ann Phua, Ruchi Kaushal and Brent Westrop.
The syndicate of lenders for the bank financing in Canada was represented by Heenan Blaikie LLP, with a team that included Kenneth Atlas, Glen Bowman and François-Simon Labelle.